My Way God, Part 2

Arthur Golden said, “Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we truly are.”

When I had recognized Jesus as Lord of my life and asked Him into my life, many things began to happen. First was the fact that Christians began popping up everywhere. It was as if God had watered His garden and I was caught in the middle of it. God began to immerse me into His Word, and I soaked it all in. I believed as a child believes. My place in God’s kingdom began to be manifested from the death and defeat I had become accustomed to. The presence of the Holy Spirit began to come on me, and events began to happen that I could not deny were from God.

The second thing that happened was that our enemy, satan, sent what seemed like a whole boatload of his henchmen to bother me. Fear, doubt, familiar habits, and things I had been in bondage to were even more apparent than before I had given my life to the Lord. I discovered that my enemy was trying to devour me with more deceit, lies, and fear.

“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:17–24).

The third thing I realized was that the largest obstacle to a transformed life would be the death of most (if not all) of those values, principles, and perceived truths that I had acquired up until this point and time in my life. This was and is the largest battle that you and I will face. Os Hillman (The Great Omission) wrote: “God is all about your death so that His success can be realized through you.”

How can we die to our self so that God can be our strength; that we would actually begin to take on the character of God and display the attributes of Jesus Christ as we emulate His example? It is my conviction that in order to begin to serve the communities we encounter, we must first encounter God where it concerns our own heart. We must learn how to give our old nature up and put on the new. We must stop controlling our services and ministries and allow God to be God.

In service to Him and you, Pastor Jim

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